Novella Carpenter

Its easy to roll your eyes at Novella Carpentera hippie-raised UW grad who later attended Berkeley J-School (studying under Michael Pollan, no less) and now lives in crime-ridden Oakland. All the liberal clichés, right? But Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer (Penguin, $29.95) isnt just another foodie book that naively preaches from a position of privilege. Carpenter is self-aware enough to know that her projectto grow vegetables, raise chickens and pigs, and eat off her little plot of landmay sound ridiculously implausible. When her first garden resembles a peace sign, she quickly changes it to look like the Mercedes Benz logo. And she doesnt bore readers with long contemplations about what it means to kill her first chicken. Instead she relates tales of dumpster-diving for pig slop, the impressive smells generated by animal droppings, and her platform-boot-wearing neighbor who runs a Wednesday-night variety show out of a local warehouse. You know: ordinary regular farm stuff. (Also: 6:30 p.m. Thurs., Palace Ballroom, www.kimricketts.com, $25.) LAURA ONSTOT